QMusings

Some people think the world is out to get them, some people think they ARE the world and some people know that we all share the same space but we all define it differently.

All the officials I’ve encountered at Heathrow have been polite, courteous, respectful, helpful and nice.  When someone noticed that I had 2 bags, she said, “Oh, how’d you manage that? I’m sorry but you’ll have to check one of those – we only allow 1 carryon here.” No anger, just an apologetic statement.

I’m told I have to step out of the line I’m in and figure out which bag  I want to check.  I have to keep my laptop bag with me which means that the Big Purple Backpack has to be checked. As I’m trying to figure out what stuff I have to move to my laptop backpack, I overhear one of the security folks speaking with a woman in what looks like to be her early 60s. She’s slender, black, tall and very propah.

She has a small carryon sized rollerbag and a tote bag. She’s told that she can only take one bag – perhaps she can fit the tote into her rollerbag?

The woman sits upright in this small area where a few others like myself are trying to both consolidate and reduce their luggage down to one bag.

She says, “This heah is mah pahketbook, ah cayried mah pahketbook all the way heah and ah needs mah pahketbook. It cayries all mah important dahcuments and I have to have it. I had it before I cahn have it now.”

The security officer tries to explain that every country has it’s own rules but she’s insistent that what worked for her before should work for her now.  I have no idea how her situation was resolved. I do know that she was treated very politely and it would take a very tall ladder to get her off the horse she was riding.

Another scene:

A female security officer is trying to help an Indian couple – the husband thinks he’ll have to check a bag and the security offer unzips his small carryone and holds up the small canvas bag and says to the man, “I think this will fit in this.” and she places the small canvas bag inside the carryon and zips it up. The man is astounded and his wife and the agent (a woman) share one of those “Oh- aren’t men silly” moments.

Yet another:

An middle-aged Indian couple sits grumpily, irritation oozing from their pores.  The security officer is trying to determine can walk on her own. I wasn’t quite following but the gist of their situation was that they could not put luggage on a wheelchair – if you were in a wheelchair you could not have a carryon - a carryon had to be carried on. The wife was dressed in a sari and sat next to but angled away from her husband. The agent was speaking to both asking of the woman really required a wheelchair. Neither husband nor wife looked at each other or even the agent.

It’s interesting how travel can bring out the absolute worse in people. Perhaps it’s because they won’t ever be seeing most of the people they encounter again – there’s a certain kind of freedom in not being known. The flip side to this is that no one knows you or cares about how important you think you are.

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